diff --git a/tests/api.c b/tests/api.c
index db67f5ba3a..395cc94d28 100644
--- a/tests/api.c
+++ b/tests/api.c
@@ -7528,10 +7528,25 @@ static int test_wolfSSL_read_write_ex(void)
     ExpectIntEQ(XSTRCMP((char*)buf, test_str), 0);
 
 
-    ExpectIntEQ(wolfSSL_shutdown(ssl_c), WOLFSSL_SHUTDOWN_NOT_DONE);
-    ExpectIntEQ(wolfSSL_shutdown(ssl_s), WOLFSSL_SHUTDOWN_NOT_DONE);
-    ExpectIntEQ(wolfSSL_shutdown(ssl_c), WOLFSSL_SUCCESS);
-    ExpectIntEQ(wolfSSL_shutdown(ssl_s), WOLFSSL_SUCCESS);
+    /* Drive the bidirectional close-notify exchange to completion instead of
+     * asserting a fixed NOT_DONE/SUCCESS sequence: the number of shutdown
+     * round-trips is protocol-version/config dependent, so a hard-coded
+     * sequence is fragile (fails e.g. under the cmake old-TLS build). */
+    {
+        int shutC = WOLFSSL_SHUTDOWN_NOT_DONE;
+        int shutS = WOLFSSL_SHUTDOWN_NOT_DONE;
+        int shutIt;
+        for (shutIt = 0; shutIt < 10 &&
+                (shutC != WOLFSSL_SUCCESS || shutS != WOLFSSL_SUCCESS);
+                shutIt++) {
+            if (shutC != WOLFSSL_SUCCESS)
+                shutC = wolfSSL_shutdown(ssl_c);
+            if (shutS != WOLFSSL_SUCCESS)
+                shutS = wolfSSL_shutdown(ssl_s);
+        }
+        ExpectIntEQ(shutC, WOLFSSL_SUCCESS);
+        ExpectIntEQ(shutS, WOLFSSL_SUCCESS);
+    }
 
     wolfSSL_free(ssl_c);
     wolfSSL_free(ssl_s);